This invention relates to an improved trouble light for car mechanics and more particularly relates to a trouble light which utilizes magnets to position and mount the trouble light so as to more effectively direct light onto the desired work area. It is primarily designed for use in relatively close spaces where it is either inconvenient or impossible to employ conventional means such as a hook or a second person to position and direct the light.
One of the standard tools of the automobile mechanic is a trouble light which is hung on various parts of the automobile to provide light as the mechanic goes about his tasks. Most frequently such trouble lights employ a hook at one end and such hook is draped over some part or portion of the vehicle under repair. When the hood of the car is raised, the hook is hung on some portion of the hood to cast light upon the engine. When the car is raised on a rack, the hook is hung for example on a tailpipe, cable, or some portion of the vehicle undercarriage in an effort to cast light in the direction where the work is proposed to be performed. While the hook-type of trouble light has been effective in the past and has enjoyed widespread use, it is nevertheless very difficult to position since the hook will not accomodate all portions of the vehicle that offer a location upon which the light may be hung. For example, most of the hooks are too small to encircle the drive shaft, and some of the hooks do not have sufficient openings to fit over portions of the car rack that are available as a site. In addition, once the hook-type of trouble light is employed, it is difficult if not cumbersome at best to adjust to any degree. The hook keeps the light directed in one area only and the light cannot be directed or changed readily to another work area without unhooking the light and then searching for another site from which to hang. In frustration, many mechanics just stop using the hook and merely lay the trouble light on its side close to where the mechanic is working in hopes that some light will somehow fall their way.
The present concept disclosed herein seeks to avoid the disadvantages of the hook-type of trouble light and provides a trouble light having a plural array of permanent and heat shielded magnets that may be attached to any of the various and easily accessible metal parts of the automobile. Thus, the conventional automobile has many more available metallic sites for a magnet than it has sites for hanging a hook.
In the prior art, some devices have been proposed for providing light wherein magnets are employed to hold the device for one or more reasons, and exemplary of such state of the art devices are depicted and described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos., namely: No. 2,772,349; No. 2,886,664; No. 3,539,800; No. 3,713,614; No. 3,924,117; No. 4,220,304; and No. 4,282,562. Such devices, however, are not related to the trouble light type of auto device disclosed herein but are related rather to the portable flashlight type of article and hence do not specifically refer to a light source that may be positioned on an automobile and adjusted to move a reflected beam onto various portions of the auto undergoing repair by a mechanic. There is depicted and also described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,295,333 and No. 2,460,173, trouble lights of sorts but such devices do not employ a plural array of permanent magnets let alone a heat shield for the magnets as is proposed herein. The first mentioned device resorts to electromagnets whereas the second mentioned device includes only a single permanent magnet.
These disadvantages of the prior art and especially of the aforementioned patents are overcome with the present invention and commercially acceptable embodiments of an automobile vehicle trouble light and the like are herein provided which not only provide sufficient light under most operating conditions but which are also capable of other tasks completely beyond the capabilities of the prior art. More particularly, however, the embodiments of the present invention are capable of operation with a much higher efficiency due to their heat shielded magnetic array arrangement, and at a substantially reduced cost of construction and operation. Further, they enable the user to move a trouble light about on a motor vehicle with much more ease than heretofore has been possible and because of the array of magnets provide for easy adjsutment and tilt of a reflected light beam over various portions of the automobile.